N.B. I have a couple of more reflective posts scheduled while I’m AFK, so please excuse any delay in my replies if there are comments left!

Time for a quick review of what I’m going to be playing in the lazy summer months. I’m still finalising my Masters dissertation so I’ll probably only get a real chance to splurge on gaming in September but there’s always a spare hour here or there for something!

Back at the end of January this year I wrote a post on having a stricter MMO rotation to make more progress by playing fewer games. Reviewing that post again my current list is looking similar.

Everquest 2My current solo game of choice for when my partner is raiding in WoW. Everquest 2 has a depth I’ve not found in any other MMO. It has a plethora of ‘crunchy’ systems to dig into, yet it makes solo’ing a valid playstyle with flair. I suspect endgame will be pose some issues for me but overall the game has a lot of distractions to keep me interested even when my inquisitor main reaches the heady heights of level 95. At the pace I’m leveling now that’s doable before the year is out.

Guild Wars 2
Still playing this with my partner as a “when we have a free evening” game. We treat it ultra casual and try to do as much open world exploration and event clearing as possible. I’m not certain where this game will go content-wise, personally I’d like to see new areas opened up with some regularity rather than an endless parade of temporary content. I would also be slightly worried that the promised two-weekly update pace will be too much and lead to ‘event’ fatigue. That certainly contributed to my tiring of Rift the first time I unsubbed (in a game based in part on group activities having events distracting most of the population makes it difficult to ignore such events!). Moreover while ArenaNet may think this is a clever tactic to keep people in the game and playing, I just think it’ll make GW2 into too much of a ‘Needy MMO‘ in my book. If I feel pressured into playing by deadlines then it feels too much like work.

SWTORWe’re playing this game as a leveling trio with a good friend Imperial-side. I’m loving playing a bounty hunter (pyrotech) pure dps character for a change of pace. Despite buying the expansion I still do not feel motivated to solo-level my sage to the new cap. It’s likely to take us several months to level to the cap at this pace, which is fine I’m in no hurry despite the peril of bonus XP weekends. Once we have a group at cap, we may start a new group. It seems to work best if we have three different classes to avoid repeating class story instances. That will limit our possible combinations though as my partner and I already have a pair of Jedi and our friend has a smuggler.

Upcoming gamesFinal Fantasy’s relaunch has me considering playing it for a while, but I have some concerns over whether it’s a game for me or not. Of the other games slated for release this year only Everquest Next is likely to pull me in, though I wonder whether I’ll actually enjoy the full on sandbox experience?